ROOTS & BRANCHES

Have I mentioned that longtime “Roots & Branches” reader (and friend) Eric “Rick” Bender lately?

Well, even though this Vietnam War veteran was just back from a visit to Indochina—including Angkor Wat in Cambodia!—he kept up with his reading had something to say about the recent column on fraktur, the Pennsylvania German folk art often used for baptismal certificates—which sometimes document births not recorded anywhere else.

But before I get to Bender’s comments, I need to follow up on the original column, which focused on Lisa Minardi’s “Fraktur A to Z” presentation at Historic Trappe in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

One of the many samples in Trappe’s possession is an early fraktur (dated in November 1771) that looks much like an illuminated manuscript page, with decorations at the top and left-hand side, beginning with large calligraphed letters at the top and then retreating into regular handwriting.

It’s dated and signed, too (only a minority of fraktur are), and I thought I heard the artist identified as Georg Friedrich Krick, which immediately fascinated me since I have two lines that go back to an immigrant Franz Krick.

I might have misheard that identification as Krick, because even with my intermediate knowledge of German script, I was sure that wasn’t the surname. I submitted it to the “Ask the Translator” crowdsourcing group that Katherine Schober’s Germanology Unlocked offers and the leader of the group came back with Rink and gave good reasons for her analysis.

But then, belatedly, I looked for the artist in Corinne Earnest’s seminal work on fraktur artists and saw that she identifies the artist’s surname as Rick.

Which happens to be a different one of my family lines! Earnest’s book says little more is known about this artist, so my story will stop there for now … but can guarantee you I’ll be searching more from here!

So, back to Bender. He said he has a couple of pieces, one for his grandmother Sarah Theis Bender and a second for that grandmother’s mother-in-law, Elizabeth Walter Bender.

“Our family Bible says Granny was Elizabeth Walter, daughter of Johannes and Rebecca (Lafferty); she was born in September 1817,” Bender wrote. “However, the fraktur says she was the daughter of Jonathan Walter (who I believe was a different guy) and his wife, Elizabeth (I think) Lafete.”

His assessment? “So, family Bibles are only as good as the person who writes it down, and fraktur baptism certificates are only as good as the guy who writes it down.”

And while on the way to looking at his fraktur, he discovered a family photo from about 1900 for a Tobias Bender family, which has turned out to be folks who also descend from his Valentin Bender—and marvels at how much they look like his family, now proven to be cousins. Call it a small world of Benders!